This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-3285, filed on Jan. 21, 2002, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a channel tuning method and a television, and more particularly, to a channel tuning method and a television using a channel name auto completion function where similar channel names are searched based on one or more of the characters of a channel name input by a predetermined inputting unit, the searched channel names are displayed on a list; and so as to aid a user in selecting a channel, a corresponding channel among channels corresponding to the channel names displayed on the list is automatically tuned for a predetermined interval of time, and the channels are sequentially displayed on a picture-in-picture (PIP) screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, as digital televisions are being widely used, some broadcasting stations provide digital broadcasting for some broadcasting programs. Accordingly, digital broadcasting can be broadcasted on a number of broadcasting channels compared to the prior art analog broadcasting, and digital televisions are able to receive a number of channels compared to the prior art analog televisions. In this respect, more broadcasting stations will broadcast more channels down the line. As the number of channels increases, it will be more difficult for a user to search a desired channel or broadcasting program. Thus, in order to easily search a desired channel or broadcasting program, an electronic program guide (EPG) or search screen has been provided. In the EPG, a desired broadcasting program can be searched using a direction key or arrow key of a remote control, and in the search screen, a desired channel can be searched by inputting the name of a desired channel using a remote control. However, in the EPG, searching for a desired channel using a direction key consumes a great amount of time, and causes inconvenience to the user. Also, in the search screen, it is harder to input channel names due to the limited number of keys provided on the remote control.
Thus, in order to solve these problems, when one or more of the characters of channel names is input in the search screen, a conventional television has a channel name auto completion function to automatically show the channel names that start with the input characters. Here, the channel names of a corresponding broadcasting channel are input by the user or are received from the corresponding broadcasting channel and stored in a memory.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional television having a channel name auto completion function. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional television having a channel name auto completion function includes a controller 10, a display 20, a memory 30, a tuner 40, a remote control receiver 50, and a remote control 60.
A user who wishes to change a channel inputs a character key 62 of the remote control 60 corresponding to one or more of the characters of channel names of a channel desired to be tuned, so the remote control 60 transmits a remote control signal. Here, the character key 62 may be a plurality of alphabet keys or a plurality of number keys. The transmitted remote control signal is received by the remote control receiver 50. The received remote control signal is input into the controller 10, such that a corresponding key of the remote control input by the user is determined and the determined key is displayed on a user input window 25 of the display 20. Also, the controller 10 performs a similar channel name search function 12 to search broadcasting channel names that start with the characters input by the user by referring to a broadcasting channel name list 32 and a broadcasting channel number list 34, both of which are stored in the memory 30. Next, the controller 10 performs a similar channel name display function 14 to display the searched similar channel names on the user input window 25 of the display 20. In this case, when the channel name which the user wants is displayed on the user input window 25 of the display 20, the user presses a predetermined key, for example, a confirmation key 64, on the remote control 60, such that the controller 10 controls the tuner 40 such that the channel corresponding to the channel name is tuned.
Now, a channel name auto completion function will be described based on the contents displayed on the user input window 25 of the display 20 with reference to FIGS. 2A through 2C.
First, if the user inputs a character A using a remote control, the character A is displayed on the user input window 25 of the display 20, as shown in FIG. 2A. Next, a controller (10 of FIG. 1) searches channel names starting with the character A, from a memory (30 of FIG. 1). As a result of searching, the controller displays a searched channel name “ABC” on the user input window 25, as shown in FIG. 2B. When the channel name of a channel which the user desires is the searched channel name “ABC”, the user presses the confirmation key (64 of FIG. 1) of a remote control (60 of FIG. 1), so the desired channel is tuned and viewed.
However, if the channel name of the channel which the user desires is different from the searched channel name “ABC”, the user inputs a character C following the initially input character of which is A. Then, the controller searches channel names starting with a character combination of AC from the memory. As a result of searching, the controller displays a channel name “ACTV” on the user input window 25, as shown in FIG. 2C. If the channel name which the user desires is the searched channel name “ACTV”, the user presses the confirmation key of the remote control, so the desired channel is tuned and is viewed.
As described above, in a conventional channel tuning method using a channel name auto completion function, a list of similar channel names, searched based on one or more of the characters of a channel name input by the user, is not provided. Accordingly, if there are more than one similar channel name, the user cannot easily search a desired channel.
Also, if a channel name itself is uncertain, it is not easy for the user to verify whether a channel corresponding to an auto completed channel name is the desired channel.